ABSTRACT
Viet Nam is a land whose features change dramatically within very short distances, from mountains and high plateaus to coastal plains and inland swamps. To the south, the large delta formed by the Mekong and lesser river systems inches forward yearly into the South China Sea. This delta, while hardly typical of all Viet Nam, is one of the most fertile rice-producing regions of southeast asia. Its importance lies not only in the substantial contribution this area can, and will, make to the national economy of Viet Nam, but it is also the area of most recent settlement by the Vietnamese. The study of its institutions can, therefore, reveal much about the prospects for social and economic change, for they differ from those of the better known areas of central and northern Viet Nam.
